In the scenic fjord landscape north of Roskilde, researchers, students and businesses gather at DTU Risø Campus to create future technological solutions.
In the coming years, we will develop Risø to include more space for demonstration and testing of future sustainable technologies. Risø will become a campus with hundreds of master's students from DTU and industry education programmes. And a business park with room for up to 4,000 industry jobs.
The purpose of the work at Risø has always been to find energy solutions that are efficient, safe and future-proof. From the inauguration on June 6, 1958 and for many years to come, the focal point was the peaceful use of nuclear power.
However, the oil crisis in 1973 triggered political deliberations on how to secure the energy supply so that Denmark would no longer be dependent on oil from the Middle East. In addition to oil and natural gas from the North Sea, coal, nuclear power, wind and solar energy were to be included in a new supply strategy.
Nuclear power was seen as the only form of energy that could realistically be used within a short time frame, and concrete plans were presented to build nuclear power plants on Danish soil.
But nuclear power faced public opposition and political divisions. In the end, the Atomic Energy Commission was disbanded in 1976. However, Risø maintained its attractive research environment.
In 1985, the Danish Parliament decided to remove nuclear power from the Danish energy plan, and Risø's three research reactors are the only nuclear reactors that have been in operation in Denmark.
In a legislative amendment the following year, it was decided to continue Research Center Risø as an independent research institution from which authorities and industry can request research and advice.
On January 1, 2007, Risø Research Center merged with a number of other science and research centers, including DTU, which today is responsible for the operation and development of DTU Risø Campus.
Nuclear research still plays a role at Risø today. DTU has gathered the academic environments working with nuclear power technologies in a new center, Nuclear Energy DTU, which is based at DTU Risø Campus.
Today, however, the site is mostly characterized by the wind energy research that has taken place at Risø since the late 1970s. This is evident when you approach and see the impressive research wind turbines that DTU has at Risø. DTU's Department of Wind & Energy Systems is one of the world's leading research institutions in the field and has a number of world-leading facilities at DTU Risø Campus.
Research at DTU Risø Campus also includes a wide range of other research areas, many of which have sustainable energy as a common denominator. DTU has research into the use of solar cells, light and sensors, battery technologies, energy storage, and biomass processing at Risø, while Aarhus University works with environmental technology and environmental science.
In addition to DTU and Aarhus University Danish Decommissioning is located at RISØand a number of companies have addresses at RISØ. Approx. 1,000 people currently have their workplace at Risø.